Bhutan has invited a team of social metric experts to improve the accuracy of measuring its famous concept of Gross National Happiness.
Bhutan is famed for focusing on the nation’s well-being via its happiness levels as opposed to more conventional gross domestic product.
The government is clearly keen that the Gross National Happiness survey be taken as seriously as possible and has enlisted the help of Japan to improve its accuracy.
A team of three experts from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the nation’s foreign aid body, are preparing to travel to Bhutan later this year to conduct a sample happiness survey.
The goal of the experts, who specialise in social metrics, will be to boost the accuracy of the way Bhutan measures the prosperity of the nation via the happiness of its 742,000-strong population.
However, the GNH system is not without its critics, who highlight that for all the emphasis on happiness, the nation faces issues such as chronic unemployment, poverty, corruption.